Chapter 8 Flashcards
What is deviant to some not deviant to others is referred to as
Relativity of deviance
The violation of norms (or rules or exceptions)
Deviance
The violation of norms written into law
Crime
“Blemishes” that discredit the person claim to a “normal” identity
Stigma
A group’s usual and customary social arrangements, on which its members depend and on which they base their lives
Social order
A group’s formal and informal means of enforcing its norms
Social control
An expression of disapproval for breaking the norm, ranging from a mild informal reaction such as a frown, to a formal reaction such as a fine or a prison sentence
Negative sanction
An expression of approval for following a norm, ranging from a smile or a good grade in a class to a material reward such as a prize
Positive sanction
Inborn tendencies (for example, a tendency to commit deviant acts)
Genetic predisposition
Crimes such as mugging, rape, and burglary
Street crime
The view that a personality disturbance of some sort causes an individual to violate social norms
Personality disorders
Edwin Sutherland’s term to indicate that people who associate with some groups learn an”excess of definitions” of deviance, increasing the likelihood that they will become deviant
Differential association
The idea that two control systems-inner controls and outer controls-work against our tendencies to deviate
Control theory
Sociologist who developed control theory
Walter Reckless
A term coined by Harold Garfinkel to refer to a ritual whose goal is to remake someone self by stripping away that individuals self-identity and stamping a new identity and its place
Degradation ceremony
The view that the labels people are given affect their own and others’ perceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior into either deviance or conformity
Labeling theory
Ways of thinking or rationalization that help people to deflect or neutralize societies norms
Techniques of neutralization
The objectives held out as legitimate or desirable for the members of the society to achieve
Cultural goals
Approved ways of reaching cultural goals
Institutionalized means
Robert Merton’s term for the strain engendered when a society socializes large numbers of people to desire a cultural goal (such as success), but withholds from some of the approved means of reaching that goal; one adaptation to the strain is crime, the choice of an innovative means (one outside the approved system) to attain the cultural goal.
Strain theory
Opportunities for crime that are woven into the texture of life
Illegitimate opportunity structure
Edwin Sutherland’s term for crimes committed by people of respectable and high social status in the course of their occupations; for example, bribery of public officials, securities violations, embezzlement, false advertising, and price-fixing
White-collar crime
Crimes committed by executives in order to benefit their corporation
Corporate crime
The system of police, courts, and prisons set up to deal with people who are accused of having committed a crime
Criminal justice system
The percentage of released convicts who are rearrested
Recidivism rate
The death penalty
Capital punishment
The killing of several victims in three or more separate events
Serial murder
The practice of the police, in the normal course of their duties, to either arrest or ticket someone for an offense, or to overlook the matter
Police discretion
The transformation of the human condition into a matter to be treated by physicians
Medicalization
To make deviance a medical matter, a symptom of some underlying illness that needs to be treated by physicians
Medicalization of deviance
